The long-awaited third and final part of the Neither Speak Nor Remain Silent limited edition series by Fovea Hex, ALLURE, IS NOW AVAILABLE by mail order from Die Stadt Records in Germany and Janet Records in Dublin, and will soon thereafter be available from the best and most discerning record stores in Europe, the US and Japan. The price is € 13.00 (+ p&p). Once again, we can offer an even more limited edition of 300 copies for € 17 (+ p&p) which will include a bonus cd, AN ANSWER, featuring material from ALLURE, reworked and remixed by Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio).

We are now able to offer you an elegant boxed set of all 3 eps in the series, at a price of € 30 (+ p&p) or € 55 including all 3 bonus cds, and for customers who have already purchased BLOOM and HUGE from Die Stadt mail order, the box is available with their copy of ALLURE, at a discounted price — please check the Die Stadt website diestadtmusik.de.

Glory be to salt, to seed, and to the still unseen! No words washed out, no dark remains: the third part emerges blinking and glistening into the light of day, pulled along by moving fingers out of sight and out of mind....... Fovea Hex comes round again to shape-shift and to evade & confound those who bray "what exactly IS it?", and "where does it BELONG exactly?", and "who exactly belongs to IT?". If you must bang on the table like that, you won't hear a thing. If this music could be described as "up-to-the-moment", then perhaps we could use an up-to-the-moment term like "collective". But eschewing all Fashion Accessory stalls, it lives as many miles away from the shock'n'awe factory beloved of the avant-garde, as it does from the souvenir-strewn temple of the new nostalgics. All in all, Fovea Hex is something more akin to a labrynthine ensemble of associates, some recent, some ancient, some close to the core, some distant, some very heard-of and some never-heard-of, all of whom showed willing and able, at some point in time (and for reasons best known to themselves) to slither in and help prepare and perform these songs and quasi-songs written — or at least started-off — by Clodagh Simonds. "Songs that don't go where you think. With voices to match......" somebody said recently. At the end of the day, that's about all that can be said with any kind of a certainty.

If you need a better idea of what this means, visit the Janet Records website now, where you'll find some treats we prepared earlier — three mixes (by Andrew Mckenzie) of near-moment excerpts from the songs from ep 1, BLOOM and three (by Colin Potter and Clodagh Simonds) from ep 2, HUGE, as well as the three moments from ep 3 entitled ALLURE. These little gems are self-contained miniatures, rather than mere faded-in-and-out extracts, and they're there for your listening pleasure — but please be warned: all rights are reserved! They may not be used or reproduced without our permission. There will be more news, so if you aren't already on our mailing list, please send a message to janetjanetrecords.com to join up.
 

don't these windows open / we sleep you bloom / that river

Voices: Clodagh Simonds, Laura Sheeran, Lydia Sasse, Brian Eno
Harmoniums: Clodagh Simonds, Roger Eno
Violas, Violins: Cora Venus Lunny
Disappeared piano: Carter Burwell
Keyboards, Zither, Guitars, other interesting things:
Clodagh Simonds, Andrew McKenzie, Brian Eno

approximate length 20 mins.

released November 2005

  OF WHICH THEY SAID:

“GORGEOUS...” (BOOMKAT)
“..A COMPELLING LISTEN” (TEXTURA)
“...THIS REALLY IS SPECIAL” (ROUGH TRADE)
“SOME OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY SONGS I'VE HEARD IN YEARS” (BRIAN ENO
“SIMONDS'LYRICS ARE POWERFUL — HER SINGING IS WROUGHT WITH EMOTION” (BRAINWASHED)
“...SPECTRAL CHORALES AROUND EMOTIONALLY CHARGED SIREN SONGS” (AQUARIUS RECORDS SF)
“...HAUNTING WASHES OF SOUND...HER VOCALS ARE BEAUTIFULLY PURE THROUGHOUT” (RECORD COLLECTOR)
“...SPELLBINDING AMBIENCE AND EERIE PAGAN BEAUTY. I CAN'T STOP LISTENING TO THIS.” (ANOTHER MUSIC,NYC)
“...RAREFIED,ABSTRACT BEAUTY — BLOOM ALSO RECALLS THE CRYOGENICALLY FROZEN "SUBLIME” OF 80S 4AD ETHEREALITY” (STYLUS)
“SIMONDS' TRANSPARENT (GLACIAL?) VOICE SINGS THE MARROW OF THREE DIAPHONOUS SONGS WHOSE HARMONIC CONTENT IS ALL DIM LIGHT AND NEAR-UNDETECTABLE MOVEMENTS....” (PARIS TRANSATLANTIC)
“...A STERLING ASSORTMENT OF AMBIENT, HIGH-DENSITY DRONES, ALL OF WHICH ARE SUBTLY BOUND BY SIMONDS' SONGCRAFT AND CRYSTALLINE, FOLK-DERIVEDVOCALS.......A VOICE THAT ONE COULD HAPPILY DROWN IN FOR HOURS.” (PITCHFORK)
“LISTENING ON HEADPHONES ALLOWS THE UNALLOYED PLEASURE OF ENCOUNTERING THE CUT CLARITY OF SIMONDS' VOICE. FOVEA HEX'S SONGS MOVE SLOWLY, BUT THE JOURNEY THEY DESCRIBE IS ACUTE IN ITS DETAIL AND COMPLETELY REWARDING.” (WIRE)
“DOWN-TO-EARTH OTHERWORLDLINESS......THE SINGER'S GOT SUCH A KNACK FOR MARRYING TRADITIONALIST TROPES AND MELODIES WITH UP-TO-THE-MINUTE-AFTER-THIS-ONE EXPERIMENTALISM THAT YOU'D THINK SHE WAS BORN WITH ETERNITY IN HER GUT." (SEATTLE WEEKLY)